A Review on the Length-Weight Relationships of Finfishes From the Coastal Lagoons of India

The study provides a review of the Length Weight Relationship (LWR) evaluations from the tropical coastal lagoons to generate an inventory of finfishes and to understand their growth and ecosystem suitability. Published literature indicates that the total finfish diversity of the major Indian coastal lagoons i.e., Chilika, Pulicat and Vembanad is represented by around 500 species belonging to 33 orders. A huge data gap is observed between the existing finfish diversity of these tropical lagoons and the LWR studies undertaken. LWR study is carried out only for 15.4 % (77 out of 500) of the reported finfish species diversity. Chilika is comparatively well explored considering the LWR evaluation of finfishes (64 species) than the Pulicat and Vembanad lagoon (10 species from each lagoon). The review indicates the involvement of a handful of researchers as the reason for less exploration of LWR of finfishes from the Indian coastal lagoons. Etroplus suratensis (order: Cichliformes) is the commonly explored species for LWR study in all the three coastal lagoons of India. This review encompassing a total of 120 LWR studies for 77 fish species depicts the range of reported b value, n value and R² values as 1.0368 - 3.538, 10 - 5,737 and 0.681 - 0.999, respectively.